Within the EU funded project “Enhancing livelihoods of local Lebanese communities in Hima territories; from social, economic and natural perspectives” framework, the first two classes of Traditional Flutes Making, took place in Anjar on the 15th of March. The trainer, Mr. Joe Dagher, SPNL project manager Mrs Giulia Del Sarto, the outdoor educational expert, Mr. Andre Bechara and SPNL field coordinator Mr. Berj Tamberian took care of the organization for the activity.
First, Mr. Dagher started explaining the basics of reed instruments and discussing how cultures around the world came to create and use reeds as instruments by showing examples of flutes from different regions from South American to Middle Eastern. Secondly, he explained the most basic way air creates sound by splitting with a bird whistle design he created, all participants were interested in making one and by the end of the class almost each participant succeeded in making his own.
Each participant worked with knives and other woodworking tools that Mr. Dagher brought with him in order to craft the whistles.
All participants showed interest and a few were more than happy to have started the classes.
On the other hand, and Within the EU funded project “Enhancing livelihoods of local Lebanese communities in Hima territories; from social, economic and natural perspectives” framework, the first class of Wood Carving Techniques, took place in Anjar on the 28th of March. The trainer, Mr. Walid Karroum, the outdoor educational expert, Mr. Andre Bechara, SPNL photographer, Mr. Adonis El-Khatib and SPNL field coordinator Mr. Berj Tamberian took part in organizing the activity.
The training started at 9:30am at the Tashnack Center and included participants both from Anjar and Kfar Zabad. Mr. Karroum started the training with a general introduction about wood carving in which he explained the difference between several types of wood. After that, he explained how to detect the quality of the wood and then proceeded with the explanation of how to use the carving tools according to the type of wood to be carved and to the carving technique intended to be used. Finally, he did a short question-and-answer session to make sure that the information were well received by the participants, which proved successful.
The participants showed great interest in the wood carving training and asked to the trainer to change the schedule of the classes so that they could specialize in a typical Armenian craft which includes bas-relief on wooden panels.
In the second part of the class, Mr. Karroum showed how to make frames and each participant had the chance to try and do a few simple carvings on the wood panels provided.
